Weighted belts are generally well known and are used in a variety of applications ranging from strength training and muscular therapy to scuba diving and skydiving.
Used for fitness purposes, there are two main benefits to using weighted belts. First, they offer a form of resistance training where the user's (leg) muscles are overloaded, forcing them to work harder than usual in order to stimulate muscle growth. Secondly, weighted belts can aid in the development of muscle memory because the user is often able to perform repetitious, sport-specific exercises while wearing the belt. Muscle memory allows an athlete to perform complex skills and techniques with proficiency.
A training tool which provides these two benefits simultaneously would be particularly useful within the hockey community where a player's leg strength and skating technique play a large role in his success. Weighted belts specifically designed for hockey players do not exist in the prior art although the advantages of using such a training tool would be significant.
Belts for fitness training, scuba diving and load lifting among others, have been disclosed which provide a means of adding weight to a belt in addition to those other features required by the intended user. However, these belts fall short in delivering all the features specifically required by an athlete playing the sport of hockey. Because of the high speed, full-contact nature of hockey every minor disturbance or distraction to a player on the ice can negatively affect performance, reduce comfort and/or raise the risk of injury. For example, a player who is thrown off balance by a weight belt with a poor weight distribution pattern is less likely to properly execute required skills and less likely to be able to safely avoid collisions or dangerous falls while playing. Clearly, an athlete involved in a high speed, full-contact sport like hockey requires a belt with a different set of features than an athlete in a sport like scuba diving. An overview of the related prior art will prove illustrative of the limitations such belts face as regards their suitability for use during on-ice, hockey training.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,808,824 to Johnston et al and 6,113,521 to Winston disclose belts which typically use materials (like solid metal weights or weights with a rigid shape) which are not appropriate for hockey because they could cause injury if there were a fall or collision on the ice.
U.S Patent No. 2007/0099774 to Lampel and U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,575 to Eylander each disclose belts with a plurality of pockets for receiving weights which are distributed along the sides and back of the belt. However, distributing weight across a hockey player's back can cause unnecessary strain on the back muscles and negatively affect balance and skating technique.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,082 to Moschetti and U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,108 to Headley disclose belts which provide straps which may be used to attach a load to the belt. However, neither belt provides weights or suitable pouches for containing the weights. If the weight pouches aren't adequately supported and safely secured on the waist of a player, the training weight will shift position during use negatively affecting balance, hindering performance and raising the risk of injury.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,672 to Stinton discloses a load-bearing belt which allows the user to attach weight to the belt through the use of an securing mechanism which can be added to the belt. The weight is fastened to the securing mechanism by way of a flexible cord which is threaded between the weight and the securing mechanism. While such an arrangement allows for quick release of the weight by pulling the cord, there is no quick or convenient way to add the weight to the belt once the cord has been pulled. The belt must be removed and the cord again threaded between the weight and securing mechanism before the belt can be used again. A useful training tool for hockey players would allow for the user to quickly and conveniently add and remove weight from the belt so as to interrupt training as little as possible.
Belts such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,732,305 to Courtney et al., 6,146,053 to Nelson and 6,132,142 to Carmichael are constructed such that the belt passes through a sleeve or channel on each weight pouch so that the weight pouches essentially hang from the belt once it is fastened around the waist of the user. While the weights themselves may be added or removed quickly with belts constructed in this manner, the pouches containing the weights cannot be removed without completely removing the belt from the user's waist. Additionally, belts constructed such that the weight pouches hang from the belt allow the training weight to move around or sag on the belt when the user makes a sudden movement or changes direction quickly. Ideally the pouches would offer more support to prevent sagging and the pouches could be removed as quickly and easily as the weights themselves.
None of the disclosed belts discussed above have been specifically designed to work together with the protective pants worn by hockey players. Therefore, they do not take into account the positioning, size and shape of the plastic and foam protective padding contained within a typical hockey player's pants. Although substantial protection is provided by the pants to a player's lower torso, hips and thighs, gaps in the padding do exist to allow a player greater mobility and range of motion. In particular, comparatively little padding is offered around the waist so as not to restrict a player's ability to bend over. The waist area then—the area which belts occupy—is vulnerable if precautions are not taken. Any force on the belt (and therefore on the player) caused by a fall or collision which is not transferred away from the waist of the player may result in injury. Belts not designed to work with the curved forms of the protective padding built into hockey pants will not sit properly on top of the pants and are therefore less likely to safely and effectively transfer the force of any impact onto the protective padding. Ideally, the belt would provide some means of transferring the forces on the belt in the waist area resulting from a fall or collision onto the padding of the protective pants.
As prior art fails to provide a belt which satisfactorily offers the secure fit, proper weight distribution, ease of use and optimal safety features necessary in order to provide a beneficial and practical training stimulus to an athlete playing the sport of ice hockey, there exists a need in the art for a belt or similar assembly which can fulfill the specific on-ice training needs of a hockey player.